Mario Party 3
Mario Party 3 (also called MP3) is the third installment in the popular ''Mario Party'' series and the last game in the franchise to be released on the Nintendo 64, as it would move to the GameCube for the next main four volumes. The game is centered around the Millennium Star, who replaces Toad as the host. The most notable change is that players can now hold up to three items instead of just one. The game includes 70 new minigames, as well as a feature unique to the Mario Party series: duel boards, on which two players fight each other using partners. The game is also the first game in the Mario Party series to have a solo mode story campaign. This is the first Mario Party game to feature a Story Mode and mini-games that could be unlocked and played anytime without purchasing them first, a system that has become standard and would continue to be used in future installments. This is the last Mario Party game to feature multiple minigame tracks for when there is just one winner, multiple winners and a new record. Story and objective From the Mario Party 3 instruction manual: A Star is Born: In the center of the vast universe, a remarkably bright star was born. It was the star that is born only once in a thousand years, the Millennium Star. According to the legend, whoever possessed the mystical star was destined to become the Superstar of the universe. However since the Millennium Star was but a newborn, it fell from the starry sky. Around that time, Mario and his friends were all happily relaxing when suddenly the Millennium Star came crashing down. Mario and his friends soon began arguing about who should keep the Millennium Star. Suddenly, the Millennium Star gave off a brilliantly bright flash of light. And with that bright flash, Mario and his friends were transported into a toy. Greetings. I am the Millennium Star. You must pass my test to prove yourself worthy of possessing me. You must journey across many lands and collect the Star Stamps. If you can collect all seven, I shall accept you as the top Superstar in the universe. Who will collect the seven Star Stamps and become the universe's top Superstar? Game and Story Mode introduction: In the center of the vast universe, a remarkably bright star was born. It was the star that is born only once in a thousand years, the Millennium Star. According to the legend, whoever possessed the mystical star was destined to become the Superstar of the universe. However since the Millennium Star was but a newborn, it fell from the starry sky. Around that time, Mario and his friends were all happily relaxing when suddenly the Millennium Star came crashing down. Mario and his friends soon began arguing about who should keep the Millennium Star. Seeing this, Lakitu came flying in, dangling a toy box from his rod. That's right! They could play "Mario Party" to see who the biggest Superstar was! Suddenly, the Millennium Star gave off a brilliantly bright flash of light. And with that bright flash, Mario and his friends were transported into a toy box! Greetings. I am the Millennium Star. You must pass my test to prove yourself worthy of possessing me. You must journey across many lands and collect the Star Stamps. If you can collect all seven, I shall accept you as the top Superstar in the universe. In Battle Royale Mode, players have to get as many Stars as possible. Stars can normally be obtained at a cost of 20 Coins. In Duel Mode, players have to defeat their opponent with their partners. Each player starts with five heart pieces. In Story Mode, a single player must battle their way towards the rank of Super Star. To do so, they must fill their stamp card with Star Stamps. The Star Stamps are Wit, Kindness, Strength, Love, Courage, Beauty, and Mischief. The trend the game will follow is Battle Royale, Duel, Battle Royale, Duel; and this continues until the player's next objective is to earn the Beauty Star Stamp. At this point, the player plays a Duel against Daisy, followed by a final Battle Royale on Waluigi's Island. For the Millennium Star, his original plan was to have a straight run-through of seven (since there are seven Star Stamps) Battle Royale Boards. However, when the Millennium Star is about to stamp the player's stamp card, another character bursts from the castle, saying they deserve this. The two argue, and Millennium Star decides to go to a Duel Board. The player wins (they must to continue) and the other character runs away in disappointment. After the stamp is received, the next Star Stamp is shown and another Battle Royale begins. When the Beauty Star Stamp is revealed though, Daisy makes a sudden appearance before a Battle Royale could even begin. The Millennium Star mentions it, however Daisy strikes a pose causing the Millennium Star to fall in love with her and offers her the Beauty Star Stamp. The player says it is not fair and the two argue. The Millennium Star regains consciousness and says they will go to Backtrack to settle it. Suddenly, Bowser appears and tries to take the stamp but Daisy swats him away in one blow. After the player defeats Daisy, she mopes and runs away. Tumble states Daisy said she has never lost, not even to her father. The player then receives the Beauty Star Stamp. The Mischief Star Stamp is then revealed, but then Bowser appears and unknowingly sends it flying into the castle, declaring the player must battle him to earn it. Everyone notices it is gone, and Waluigi comes out of the castle with the stamp trapped in a cage. Waluigi and Bowser fight each other, but to everyone's surprise, Waluigi wins. He tells the player they will go to Waluigi's Island. Bowser tells the player to avenge him for what happened. Although long time foes, the player silently agrees and chases after Waluigi. After the battle is over, Waluigi is pounding the floor in frustration yelling he won't forget what happened. The Millennium Star gives the player the Mischief Star Stamp. Despite winning all the stamps, the Millennium Star declares there is one person left the player must battle. The player is seen thinking hard of who could it be. Both the player and Tumble are surprised when the Millennium Star exclaims the player must defeat him in Stardust Battle to win. When the player defeats him, they ask to be the greatest superstar in the universe (although ownership of the Millennium Star was the original offer). The Millennium Star startles everyone admitting he isn't the real Millennium Star and flies away in shame. The player drops to the ground in disappointment, unable to believe it was all for nothing. Suddenly, Tumble begins glowing and his dice head opens to reveal a small white star. He explains he is the real Millennium Star, and was watching the player the whole time. After returning the castle and the grounds to its normal state, he promises the player he will make them the superstar of the universe. The credits roll. In the final scene, set in front of the castle, Mario is lying on a folding chair, Luigi and Peach are talking to each other nearby, and Donkey Kong is sitting near the three just watching. In the back, Wario and Waluigi are apparently arguing, Daisy is sitting and watching the butterflies, and Yoshi is in the far back chasing a butterfly. The closing scene is a table with a box with the words "Mario Party" on it. A die (the same color as Tumble's head) is thrown onto the table and the word "END" appears on the lower right corner. Story Mode Stamps Characters The game brings back the original six playable characters from the first two Mario Party games and introduces two new characters, Princess Daisy and Waluigi. However, they can only be playable in Party Mode and Mini-game mode. Playable *Mario *Luigi *Peach *Yoshi *Wario *Donkey Kong *Daisy (Party Mode only) *Waluigi (Party Mode only) Non-Playable *Bowser *Millennium Star *Toad *Tumble Battle Royale Maps Duel Maps Items *Mushroom *Golden Mushroom *Magic Lamp *Poison Mushroom(new) *Reverse Mushroom (new) *Cellular Shopper (new) *Boo Repellent (new) *Bowser Phone (new) *Plunder Chest *Dueling Glove *Skeleton Key *Item Bag (new) *Lucky Lamp(new) Rare Items *Barter Box (new) *Koopa Card (new) *Wacky Watch (new) *Lucky Charm (new) Mini-games Mini-game Music References to other games *''Dr. Maro'' - The minigame Mario's Puzzle Party plays similarly to Dr. Mario. *''Mario Party/''Mario Party 2 - The character mugshots of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Wario and Donkey Kong are reused in these games. Also, in the Mini-Game Mario's Puzzle Party, these characters have the same winning mugshots from Mario Party 2. References in later games *''Mario Party 4'' - "You're the Star" is a cover of "The Adventure Ends". Also, some of the playable characters' voice clips are reused Reception Mario Party 3 received mixed to positive reviews. It has a 74% rating from Metacritic, based on 12 reviews, and a 73% from Game Rankings based on 17 reviews. IGN gave it a 6.4 and GameSpot gave it a 7.5. In Japan, Famitsu magazine scored the game a 31 out of 40. Sales Mario Party 3 is the 26th best selling game for the Nintendo 64, selling approximately 1.9 million copies: 1.02 million copies in Japan, 720,000 copies in North America, and 160,000 copies elsewhere, as of December 31, 2009. Awards The Mario Party 3 installment won the Console Family Award from the Academy of the Interactive Arts and Sciences of 2002. Voice Sounds Mario Party 3/voice sounds Trivia *If non-party boards are counted, this is the Mario Party that has the second most boards, 12, with Mario Party 10 having 14 (this includes the Amiibo boards). *This is the final Mario game released for the Nintendo 64 internationally (except for Australia, where Paper Mario was the last Mario game), six months before the release of Luigi's Mansion on the Nintendo GameCube. *This is the first Mario Party game to feature Mario's main voice, Luigi's main voice, Peach's main voice, and Wario's main voice replacing the voice clips from the first two Mario Party games and the third and final Mario Party game to feature Yoshi's sound effects and Toad's sound effects from the first two Mario Party games. *For Princess Daisy, this was the fourth game in the overall Mario series that Daisy participated in (after her return in Super Mario Land, NES Open Tournament Golf, and ''Mario Tennis''. Additionally for Waluigi, this is the second game to feature him (after his debut appearance in Mario Tennis (N64)). Daisy and Waluigi were the first two additions to the Mario Party series installments overall. *This is the final installment of the Mario series overall which features Princess Peach and Princess Daisy in their classic appearances (though in Mario Kart: Super Circuit and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Peach wears her classic dress instead of her current dress), as well as Daisy's hair being longer, having tan skin and having a red crown. Peach's dress received a major temporary redesign starting with Super Mario Sunshine (which is a sundress) and finalized with Mario Party 4. *Princess Daisy and Waluigi do not appear at the beginning, making it a mystery as to how they got into the toy chest in the first place. *This is the final appearance of Princess Daisy's classic design, which was first used in Super Mario Land. *This is the first Mario Party game to feature Mario's main voice, Luigi's main voice, Peach's main voice and Wario's main voice. *This is also the last Mario Party game to feature Yoshi's sound effects from Super Mario World and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island which was used in the first two Mario Party games. *Some of the playable characters' voice clips were later reused in Mario Party 4 and Mario Party 5. *Some of the minigame music was recycled and remixed in Mario Party Advance. *On the game's cover artwork and wallpaper featuring the entire cast of characters that has an example of a Battle Royale Board Map which is based on Chilly Waters, the spaces illustrated are circle-shaped like the previous games, yet in the game they are octagon-shaped. *Upon failing an Item minigame in the Japanese version, the announcer says "MISS!" with said word also shown on screen. This was changed in the North American, Australian, and European versions to say "GAME OVER" instead, but retaining the original narrator's voice recording from the first game. *The instruction manual incorrectly states that Thwomp has an attack stat of 2 instead of 0. *''Mario Party 3'' is one of the few games in which Mario speaks in coherent sentences; this happens when he challenges the player for the Courage Star Stamp. **However, his and other characters' dialogues are translated by the Millennium Star and Tumble. *This is the first Mario Party game to feature a Story Mode and mini-games that could be unlocked and played anytime without purchasing them first. A system that has become standard would continue to be used in future installments. *This is one of two games in the series that does not have a Bowser-themed board in Party Mode, the other being Mario Party 6. *At first, the Millennium Star says the winner will be the rightful owner of him, but after defeating all the others, he says if the player can defeat him in the Stardust Battle, he will make them the "Greatest Superstar of the Universe". External links *[http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus_p_nmvj/index.html Official Mario Party 3 Japanese website] *Nintendo UK website ES:Mario Party 3 Category:Nintendo 64 games Category:2001 video games Category:Hudson Soft games Category:Nintendo games Category:Mario games Category:Mario Party games Category:Games published by Nintendo Category:2000 video games